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Verb Conjugation in Tirina
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An overview of verb conjugation in Tirina.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 7 Jan 2015, 20:07.

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Menu 1. Gender 2. Mood 3. Tense and Aspect 4. Habitual Aspect 5. Number 6. Negation 7. Location 8. Wu-Class Verbs 9. In Summary... Tirina is, in most respects, mostly isolating. Oh, there's intensifiers and number/gender inflections for adjectives and so on, but it definitely comes down more on the "isolating" end of the isolating-synthetic scale.

The big exception to this is verbs. Verbs can be inflected in a number of ways, which are discussed below. As Tirina verbs are agglutinative, I'll discuss each manner of inflection separately; combining them is as easy as simply slapping the appropriate morphemes together in the right order.

The verb used as an example for most of these is dana (to throw). Present tense (which is unmarked) and the feminine gender are used in all cases unless otherwise indicated.

[edit] [top]Gender

Gender in Tirina (which should be/will be/is discussed in another article, depending on when you're reading this) is divided into four dimensions: masculine, feminine, animate, and inanimate. Largely this is related to biological gender, although there are a few oddities. In particular, it should be noted that masculine/feminine typically only refer to dalar men and women; humans get thrown into "animate" instead (although this usage is changing, albeit slowly). Gender is indicated with a prefix.

GenderPrefix(es)ExampleEnglish Translation
Masculineto-todana(he) throws
Femininena-, an-nadana(she) throws
Animatem-, mo-modana(it/the animal/the human) throws
Inanimateu-, re-udana(it/the machine) throws


If mixed genders are involved, the hierarchy generally goes masculine > feminine > animate > inanimate, but especially in formal or older speech, a mixed dalar/human group would be considered animate rather than masculine/feminine. Gender is always explicitly marked.

In the feminine gender, na- is used when the prefix would be followed by a non-liquid consonant. Generally, this is when the verb begins with a non-liquid consonant, but if the verb is inflected for a mood other than indicative (the default, which is unmarked), then na- is always used, as it is guaranteed to be followed by a non-liquid consonant. an-, on the other hand, is used only when the following phoneme is a vowel or a liquid (l or r). For example, anewo'or ((she) sees), but nakelewo'or (can she see?).

The animate gender works similarly. mo- is used in most cases, but if the prefix is followed by a vowel, m- is used instead. For example, mewo'or ((it) sees), but mokelewo'or (can it see?).

In the inanimate gender, u- is the default, and re- is used when the prefix is followed by a vowel other than /e/ and /u/ or a liquid. For example, uewo'or ((it) sees), but realekaru ((it) turns). (u- becomes w- before a root starting with /u/, such as wudran ((it) wanders).)


After the gender prefix comes the optional mood prefix. By default, verbs are in the indicative mood, which is unmarked. However, there are two forms of interrogative mood and one form of imperative mood, all of which are marked.

Interrogative
Interrogative sentences do not alter word order. Instead, a prefix marks the sentence as a question. The first form of interrogative mood asks for verification or confirmation of a statement. This is indicated through the prefix dohi- The second form is used for making a request or asking about ability (a "can X do Y" sort of question). The prefix used here is kel-.

Question TypeAffixExampleEnglish Translation
Verification-dohi-nadohidanais (she) throwing?
Ability-kel-nakeldanacan (she) throw (in the present)?


Imperative
Imperative mood is somewhat simpler. It indicates an exhortation of some kind, including both commands and advice. It is indicated through the use of the prefix fis-.

ExampleEnglish Translation
nafisdanaThrow! (to a woman) or You should throw. or You could throw.


Tirina tends to involve less hedging than English, in that "do X", "should X", and "could X" are all expressed in basically the same way. (Either that or there's way more, and when you say "do X", you're really just suggesting they could do it...)

The grammatical table of all combinations of gender and mood (except for the second interrogative mood) can be seen here.

[edit] [top]Tense and Aspect

Tense and aspect are closely linked in Tirina, although they break down somewhat differently than in some other languages. Present tense is unmarked, but both past and future tense are explicitly marked with a suffix that immediately follows the verb.

Simple TenseSuffixExampleEnglish Translation
Past-danadanada(she) threw
Presentnadana(she) is throwing, she throws
Future-lenadanale(she) will throw


A quick side note (that applies to all aspects of Tirina inflection, generally speaking)... if the verb (or preceding morpheme, or whatever) ends with the same consonant that the next morpheme begins with, the second consonant is replaced with a glottal stop. Thus toefid ((he) walks) becomes toefid'a ((he) walked). For doubled vowels, though, a glottal stop is simply inserted between them.

I find it difficult to summarize Tirina aspect, so a good place to go look is the appropriate grammar table.

In short, there's four marked aspects: perfect, progressive, intentional, and perfect progressive. I think, anyway. Perfect means that the action is completed from the perspective of the tense being used. Progressive means that the action will be in progress from the perspective of the tense. Perfect-progressive means that the action is a continuing one. Intentional indicates, obviously, intent--that an action was/is/will be intended to occur.

The following table gives an example for each combination of tense and aspect, as well as a more-or-less English translation. As the grammar table linked above shows, there are some gaps; I've attempted to give an example of how these might be expressed in Tirina as well.

PerfectProgressivePerfect-progressiveIntentional
Past-dan, nadanadan
(she) had thrown
-an, nadana'an
(she) was throwing
[none, use simple past]
(she) had been throwing
-len, nadanalen
(she) had been going to throw
Present[none, use simple past or past perfect]
(she) has thrown
[none, use simple present]
(she) is throwing
-daka, nadanadaka
(she) has been throwing
[none, use simple present or something]
(she) has been going to throw
Future-das, nadanadas
(she) will have thrown
-as, nadana'as
(she) will be throwing
-ka, nadanaka
(she) will have been throwing
-les, nadanales
(she) will be going to throw


There is actually one other aspect used in Tirina, the habitual, but it is marked differently and will be dealt with below.

[edit] [top]Habitual Aspect

The habitual aspect is indicated in a separate way from other aspects, and can freely be combined with any of them. In essence, it indicates that an action is not a one-time thing, but rather a repeated, continuous, or habitual action. The suffix -lin is used to indicate this, and immediately follows the tense/aspect.

ExampleEnglish Translation
nadanalin(she) throws (regularly)


If the verb is in the simple future tense, -in is used instead (nadanalein ((she) will throw regularly)). This also applies if the verb is in the simple present tense and ends with a liquid. (anewo'orin ((she) habitually looks))

The habitual form can also be used to indicate the ordinary or expected state of something, or a general capability.

Adehirn utalderalin.
The sun shines (habitually, as it always does, etc.).

Ada analenahilin sipran inlanol.
The woman speaks (is capable of speaking) the English language.

[edit] [top]Number

Number in Tirina is quite simple; there is only singular (unmarked) or plural (marked). Plurality is indicated with the suffix -mir.

ExampleEnglish Translation
nadana(the woman) throws
nadanamir(the women) throw


Number is the final morpheme, following the habitual aspect.

[edit] [top]Negation

Negating a verb (that is, indicating that an action did not take place) does not really involve an affix, but rather the standalone negative particle ton is placed before the verb. It is sometimes written attached to the verb, but it's a free morpheme. When used in conjunction with habitual aspect (-lin), it indicates that the action is not habitual, not that it never happens--that would require the use of tos (never) instead.

For example, ton nadanale means she won't be throwing, tos nadanale means she will never throw, ton nadanalein means she won't be in the habit of throwing, and tos nadanalein means she will never be in the habit of throwing.

[edit] [top]Location

Tirina no longer marks for location, but historically it did. Local (taking place "here", more or less) was unmarked, but remote actions (taking place "there") required the suffix -imen, placed between habitual aspect and number. "Local" versus "remote" is subjective and depends on the context, intent, and perspective of the speaker.

At any rate, it no longer is seen except in archaic contexts.

[edit] [top]Wu-Class Verbs

Wu-class verbs are a little unusual. These are verbs that are derived from the causative prefix wu- and a verb. For example, denki (release) and wudenki (escape), oska (be born) and wuska (give birth), etc. This is generally considered to be a mostly non-productive prefix, but it might be better analyzed as the fossilized remains of a causative mood no longer found in Tirina. This analysis is supported by the fact that wu-class verbs cannot typically take moods, and also are virtually always transitive.

In place of a mood affix, when a wu-class verb needs to be inflected for the imperative or interrogative mood, an adverb is used instead. Questions requiring verification or confirmation, ordinarily using -dohi-, use the adverb idkasel (certain, sure). Questions about capability, ordinarily using -kel-, use the adverb almes (able, capable). And imperatives, ordinarily using -fis-, use proki (necessary, needed).

Questions of this type are generally followed by either las (yes) or ton (no).

Examples:

Todohioskada?
to-
MASCMasculine (gender)
masculine or male
-
dohi-
INTIntelligent (gender/class)
Sentient beings
oska-
be.born
da
PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech

Were you born?

Towuskada idkasel, las?
to-
MASCMasculine (gender)
masculine or male
-
wuska-
give.birth
da
PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
idkasel
certainly
las
yes

Did you give birth?

Tokeloskada?
to-
MASCMasculine (gender)
masculine or male
-
kel-
INTIntelligent (gender/class)
Sentient beings
oska-
be.born
da
PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech

Can you be born?

Towuskada almes, las?
to-
MASCMasculine (gender)
masculine or male
-
wuska-
give.birth
da
PSTPast (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
almes
able.to
las
yes

Can you give birth?

[edit] [top]In Summary...


Morphemes go in the following order: ([] indicates that a morpheme is technically optional)

gender - [mood] - root - tense and aspect - [habitual aspect] - [location] - [number]

Negation, of course, precedes the verb.

For fun and games, here's one of the longest verbs I can come up with:

ton nafisdanakalinmir
Don't form (now) a habit of throwing that will continue into the future (as spoken to a group of women).
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